Chapter 4
591 Words
Aria's POV
He studied me in silence, and it felt like he could see everything I tried so hard to keep hidden. My fears. My secrets. My dreams I never dared to say out loud.
“You don’t belong in a place like this,” he said finally, eyes locked on mine.
I stiffened. “That’s… not a good thing, is it?”
The corner of his mouth curved, almost a smile. “It’s dangerous.”
Before I could respond, his hand lifted fingers brushing a strand of hair from my face. My breath hitched, my skin tingling where he touched me. Then his thumb tilted my chin, raising my gaze until I couldn’t look anywhere but at him.
His lips met mine.
Soft at first, almost testing. Then deeper, firmer. Heat flared in my chest, spreading through my body. My hands gripped the couch, torn between pushing him away and pulling him closer. The kiss consumed me, drowning out every thought except him.
When he finally pulled back, my lips were swollen, my chest rising and falling too fast. His thumb brushed across my lower lip, sending shivers down my spine.
“Go home, Aria,” he murmured. His voice was low, husky, dangerous. “Before I forget, I should let you.”
My body screamed at me to stay. But my legs moved on instinct, carrying me out of the penthouse and into the elevator.
As the doors slid shut, my reflection stared back flushed cheeks, parted lips, wide eyes. I didn’t recognize the girl in the mirror.
And I had the sinking feeling that nothing about my life would ever be normal again.
Adrian POV
The penthouse felt different when I woke the next morning. Too quiet. Too empty.
I pushed myself upright on the couch, dragging a hand through my hair. The faint edge of whiskey still clung to my tongue, but it wasn’t the alcohol that left me unsettled. It was her.
Aria.
Wide, cautious eyes that had watched me like I was both threat and temptation. The tremor in her breath when I touched her. The way she’d melted into that kiss until panic had snapped her back to herself and sent her fleeing.
Smart girl. She should run.
I rose and stalked toward the windows, the city sprawling beneath me. Tiny people moved below, ants chasing meaningless routines. None of them knew that something had shifted in my world last night.
I’d kissed staff before. Hell, I’d done far more. But this… this was different. She was different.
Dangerous territory, Voss.
My phone buzzed. Marcus with updates on tonight’s shipment. Isabella confirmed dinner next week. Business. Power. The empire I’d built with blood and precision.
And yet my thoughts kept drifting back to Aria’s trembling hands, to the way she’d whispered my name like it was a sin.
I shrugged on my jacket and stepped into the elevator. There was work waiting for me. Meetings. Deals. Enemies. But as the doors slid shut, the only image in my head was her.
Would she be thinking of me too? Would she regret what happened if she knew the truth about who I was, what I was capable of?
The elevator descended, carrying me back into shadows I’d long since claimed as my own. But last night had shifted something inside me. Something I wasn’t sure I wanted to put back.
I made a mental note to have my assistant pull staff schedules. Strictly business, of course.
Nothing more.
The lie tasted bitter even to me.
- Writer
